Holy See

The strange future of parish life

Vatican II and the internet have brought consumer choice into churchgoing. Some see that as a danger – but with imaginative leadership, it could be an opportunity

Damian Thompson

An accidental pilgrimage

I touched down from America hoping only for a few good dinners. But I found hints everywhere of British Catholicism's surprising vitality

Matthew Schmitz

The best of the Catholic blogosphere

✣   highlights from the week online a dance out of time at patheos.com, marc barnes’s bad catholic blog took issue with “our current da...

The big story of the past seven days

✣  britain votes to leave european union what happened? britain voted to leave the european union in an unexpected result whose effects...

Comments of the Week

how cardinal newman escaped the index sir – of course david mills (“we shouldn’t be ashamed of the index”, june 17) is right. today’s media,...

The Catholic Herald

Briefly noted

the case for jesus by brant pitre (image books, £16). the author, professor of sacred scripture at notre dame seminary in new orleans, provi...

Is the Church ready for Boris?

david cameron’s resignation speech on friday marked a sudden end to his 11 years as leader of the conservative party. remain supporters heap...

Madeleine Teahan

Patriarchs agree to meet regularly

in the final message of the pan-orthodox council, more than 200 bishops from 10 churches affirmed their full unity with one another and with...

Francis: Benedict XVI is ‘immersed in God’

benedict xvi’s decision to retire and live a life dedicated to prayer is an important lesson for the world’s priests, pope francis has said....

‘An immense tragedy is unfolding before us’

pope francis and the head of the armenian apostolic church, catholicos karekin ii, have appealed for common action on behalf of persecuted c...